Musings of a fantasy author in a wibbly wobbly world.

Sites are reporting that “confidential” information on Microsoft’s next version of Windows has hit the net. Before we look at that more deeply, let’s ask ourselves – Do we really think that this was a leak at all? Could it not be reasonable to think that Microsoft wants people to start talking about Windows 8 without the allegation being put that yet again just after you have purchased a new Windows version, Microsoft are already trying you tell you, you need to spend again soon.

So after Windows 7 was claimed by some to be the second coming of operating systems, what on earth are they going to claim Windows 8 will offer and what features can we expect to see taken from competitors products and rebadged under a different name?

If the allegedly leaked documents are legitimate, then the answer is clear.

Has Microsoft finally realized that an app store is what users want? Have they finally taken this on board and gone and swiped the idea of another, maybe Apple or what about Canonical? Or how about the Android marketplace? Whoever inspired Microsoft to have an app store, you can bet that by the time Windows 8 comes out, the app store will be all Microsofts idea and most likely rebadged like Bing and its “decision engine” How about this….”an online application acquisition program”…there you go Microsoft, that’s a freebie. I hope the wording is flowery enough for you.

As I maintained before, when Microsoft has a release to make, you will see the ideas of others cropping up, rebadged and flowered with a few fancy words. Probably the most notorious of them for me was the Juku/Plurk incident.

I do recommend you check out the sources of further information, which give more detail of some of the finer points. Normally I would have included more quotes and links, but I’m currently conducting an experiment of sorts and writing the entire article on an HTC Desire.

Windows 8 is alleged to have a cloud focus of sorts, which is rather contradictory to a regular Microsoft Faithful commenter who suggested that Cloud computing was way in the future and certainly to me hinted upon Microsoft arrogance that if its not coming from Redmond, its not happening.

Of course computing in the cloud is happening we are seeing more and more popular apps being offered remotely. We are seeing Google making its preparations for a deployment of its cloud based OS and we already have a number of Distros based on Cloud computing and a few very exciting new ones (Peppermint).

Canonical predominantly is taking this further with its Distortion and Ubuntu One is a potential revenue stream for them. Dropbox is another service and whilst it does need noting that Microsoft offers similar services, you have Dropbox already deployed on Android and unless I’m mistaken Microsoft have yet to even plan to follow.

Microsoft tried to jump on board with its Office Apps after an acceptance and large scale usage of Google apps, but I think just as Bing found out, a rebadged offering with flowery wording cannot take on established respected brands, even if it does come from the “mighty Microsoft” just like Bing, MS office apps were offered by Microsoft to “compliment” Office, but is this a further example of Microsoft trying to save face when “secretly” they are hoping to compete?

That f’Kin Phone?

An example of recent Microsoft “innovation” has appeared to have ended in tears. Whilst its no longer news, before we go any further, let’s spare a thought for those poor souls who bought into the PR of the Kin and got themselves one.

For those of you who follow my antics on Twitter, you would have seen my challenge of a Kin advocate who claimed that the Kin was the greatest social networking phone ever made, even going so far as saying that I was ignorant in respect of my views of its impending failure. I wonder if that user would like to respond now? admittedly I did not expect the Kin to be axed so quickly, but to me it was obviously a doomed “innovation” for Microsoft from day one.

This makes me wonder (yet again) who on earth is working for Microsoft? How can I, a tech writer who until recently was mobilephobic look at a product and predict its failure?

Not one person involved in the Kin project turned around and said “hang on folks, isn’t this Kin a bit of a pig?” apparently not since it was thrown into the market which was hungry for other products.

It is also rumoured that Zune (the ipod beater that never was) may go the same route, which leads onto another important point.

It is alleged that Microsoft are going to incorporate the best bits of Kin into the impending Windows 7 platform and I wonder what the guinea pigs (or customers of Kin) feel like after their purchases have been axed. Presumably similar to the Vista customers who felt that they suffered Vista in order to be unwitting beta testers of sorts for Windows 7.

Microsoft are alleged to have said

We have made the decision to focus
exclusively on Windows Phone 7 and we will
not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned.
Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team
with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating
valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into
future Windows Phone releases. We will
continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell
current KIN phones.

So let’s look forward to “the best of Kin” and possibly the best of Zune when the new Windows mobile OS makes an appearance.

Another question for a future article would be, as the cloud comes more into the fore, is the Windows platform becoming more irrelevant? I’d say so and can’t help wondering how many units of Windows 7 would be shipped if it wasn’t for OEM.

That has to be some sort of a record for Microsoft, they usually don’t bin a dead product until it’s been stinking up the shelves for two or three years.

As to Windows Eight, or Windows Vista Seven Eight, unless Microsoft can get their act together, it will be a failure in the marketplace, because all of the computer OEMS are playing with doing an Apple, and rolling their own operating systems (or so I hear) and if they do that, Microsoft is dead.

Ludicrous… They’ll use the failed project Natal to be the computer controller. Man, those guys at M$ don’t know more where to go. I’d say they can’t devise even a way out of the mess Vi$ta brought upon them. A voice/image activated control for your computer… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, those guys surely spent too much time watching Star Trek. Voice controlled computers have been around for ages, and not one done right. Even in the Xbox, the Kinect was not that good, in the computers, there will be no miracle to make it better. They should pursue realistic situations and competition , not Sci Fi Vaporware that will make them look even more rubbish than they already are.

I’d like to hear a comment from some of the Kin promoters who claimed I was either a MS hater or ignorant…..since I was right correctly predicted a flop of the Kin, do I get an apology? I hope my views on Kin since it was launched, prevented at least a few from wasting their money on it.